Overcoming Gender-Related Barriers to Immunization Services
March 1st, 2022 | event
As health care providers worldwide intensify efforts to reach zero-dose children with routine immunizations and, at the same time, scale up adult access to COVID-19 vaccines, it has become clear that removing gender-related barriers to immunization services must be part of all outreach efforts. Gendered expectations about men’s and women’s roles within the family, community, and health care setting influence who receives vaccines, where and when they receive them, and from whom.
Recent surveys suggest that in some low- and lower-middle-income countries, women are accessing COVID-19 vaccines at far slower rates than men, leaving them more vulnerable to infection. What approaches are best for overcoming gender-related barriers to vaccine access and uptake? What lessons can we draw from other health areas that have reduced gender-related barriers to service use? And how can we enact policies to ensure that everyone, regardless of gender, has access to immunization?
Join JSI, UNICEF, USAID, Women in Global Health, and the Center for Strategic & International Studies’ (CSIS’) Global Health Policy Center on Tuesday, March 8 from 1:00–2:00 pm EDT for a conversation on overcoming gender-related barriers to immunization services.
Panelists:
- Wendy Abbey, technical officer, JSI
- Roopa Dhatt, executive director, Women in Global Health
- Ellyn Ogden, worldwide polio eradication coordinator, USAID
- Aboubacar Kampo, director of health programmes, UNICEF
Katherine E. Bliss, senior fellow and director of immunizations and health systems resilience at the CSIS’ Global Health Policy Center, will moderate the discussion.
